Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If paroled this summer, Elizabeth Haysom faces an uncertain future and a family divided by her past.
Haysom, who is eligible for parole Aug. 7, will be interviewed today by a Virginia Parole Board examiner.
She was sentenced to 90 years in prison as an accessory to the 1985 murders of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in their Bedford County home.
Her one-time lover, Jens Soering, was convicted of the murders.
Both were honor students at the University of Virginia.
Incarcerated since her arrest in London in 1986, Haysom, who will turn 31 next week, must be released by June 20, 2032. A Canadian citizen, she faces a federal deportation hearing when paroled or released.
One of her half-brothers, Howard Haysom, has written to the state Parole Board opposing her early release. Another half-brother, Richard Haysom, thinks she should be freed, but not this soon.
They both believe she played a more active role in the double murder than she has claimed.
Bedford County Circuit Judge William Sweeney, who convicted her, wrote to the Parole Board shortly after sentencing her and recommended against early release.
However, Doug Hornig, a Nelson County mystery novelist and friend, has urged the Parole Board to grant an early release. He says she has great remorse for her parents' deaths and has suffered greatly.
At one point in her imprisonment, she was a virtual hermit, refusing all visitors, he said.
``I don't feel like, at this point, she's a threat to society,'' Hornig said recently. ``There's no one else to kill.''
Her cousin, Francesca Haysom of New York City, also thinks Haysom should be paroled immediately from the state prison in Goochland.
``There comes a time when it serves no purpose whatsoever'' to keep her in prison, the cousin said. ``I don't believe Elizabeth poses any threat to society.''
Richard Haysom is not so sure.
``I don't wish her well'' at the parole interview, he said Tuesday from his home in Calgary, Alberta. ``I'm not opposed to her getting her freedom, but maybe in another two or three years. For what I consider really happened, she hasn't paid the price.''
Though Elizabeth Haysom claims she was in Washington, D.C., while Soering confronted and killed her parents, Richard Haysom thinks she lied.
``I find it impossible to believe Jens acted alone'' in the murder of Haysom's parents, he said.
Derek Haysom, his stepfather, ``would never have let his guard down with Jens in the house,'' Richard Haysom said. ``He hated Jens, despised him.''
Haysom said he believed his half-sister had to be at the murder scene for Soering to get into the house. He cites his parents' Canadian income tax return, which was mailed to his stepbrother, Veryan Haysom. The letter was postmarked in Washington, D.C., a couple of days after the murders.
Richard Haysom believes that Elizabeth Haysom must have taken it from her parents in person because, he says, they wouldn't have trusted Soering to mail the form for them.
Soering testified during his trial that he falsely confessed to protect his lover. Now seeking an appeal, he claims he was in Washington, D.C., while she killed her parents.
Richard Haysom said he suspected his half-sister's involvement in the murders when he came to Virginia for his parents' funeral.
``I was in the hotel room with Elizabeth, and I said whoever mailed that [income tax form] killed our parents ... and she just freaked. She was noticeably shaken. She paced up and down the hallway. It just told me then and there that she knew what was going on.''
Richard Haysom said he thinks she should own up to her role in the killings, if that's what really happened. She refuses to answer his questions about the murders when they correspond, he said.
If his half-sister is paroled, he worries about what kind of life will await her, whether she lives in Canada or the United States.
Elizabeth Haysom spent most of her life studying in expensive overseas boarding schools and traveling through Europe. She never finished college, never held a job, and doesn't have any practical work experience, Richard Haysom said, though he has heard she's been taking design classes in prison.
She also volunteers as an aide in the law library of the prison, where she's described as a model inmate.
``I'm in favor of her getting her freedom sooner,'' Richard Haysom said. ``If she's paroled when she's 45 or 50 years old, she'll be too old to get a job, probably. Who'll hire her? Isn't it better that she get released when she has more opportunities, more chance to assimilate?''
Some clues to Haysom's plans after prison might be in the list of approved visitors she updates four times a year. Though it changes often and lists mostly friends, it offers hints that she is looking to cash in on her story.
Hornig, the writer, frequently has been on the list. At one time, he was visiting her at least once a month. He planned to write a book about the murders, using her as a source, until she backed out. Now he talks with her only occasionally.
``She's a pretty fascinating person,'' he said. ``Incredibly smart, [with] a really good sense of humor. She's very attractive and very vivacious.
``There's not much for society to gain by keeping her behind bars."
Another recent visitor has been Bud Dowdey, a documentary filmmaker who once was host and producer of local television shows as owner of AKD Productions Inc. of Roanoke. He would not comment as to why he's been visiting her.
Richard Spjut of Laurel, Md., a cancer and AIDS researcher, corresponded with Haysom after she responded to a singles ad he placed in The Washingtonian magazine.
Haysom sent him a picture from college, but didn't tell him she was in prison until her second letter. Then ``she led me on at first, making me think she would get out soon,'' Spjut said.
He was put on her visiting list and prepared to visit early last year, but she stopped writing.
``She was a very intelligent person,'' he said. ``She doesn't belong [in prison] at all. If you read her history, I don't get the impression at all that she'd do anything like that again.
"It seems to me if you've got overcrowding in the prisons, why have somebody like this in prison?
``I hope she gets out of there.''
Despite her record in prison, the odds are against an early release for Haysom. Under Gov. George Allen, the Parole Board has been reluctant to let prisoners out early. Its grant rate was 12 percent in the first six months of the fiscal year, which began in July. That's the lowest among states with active parole boards.
Staff writer David M. Poole contributed to this story.
by CNB